August 13, 1981

Dissident Canadian air traffic controllers, whose work stoppages stranded thousands of travelers on two continents in recent days, returned to work in full force across Canada today. Before the negotiations with the Government that ended the work stoppages, the Government had suspended more than 25 controllers and had started actions that could have led to $5,000 fines for those refusing to handle traffic going to and from the United States. The dissident controllers, who were acting in support of striking controllers in the United States, had not won widespread public support and had been criticized directly in confrontations with pilots and angry passengers. The negotiations produced an agreement between Canada's Department of Transportation and the Canadian Air Traffic Controllers Association for resumption of traffic control procedures at 8 A.M. today and joint management-labor studies of the safety problems controllers say have been created by the American strike.

Cablevision, one of the few remaining privately held cable companies, was awarded the Boston cable franchise yesterday on the basis of a proposal to provide subscribers with 52 basic channels of service for $2 a month, one of the lowest rates in the country. The franchise, covering 240,000 homes, was among the last available in a major urban market. The only other competitor in Boston was Warner-Amex Cable Communications, which has been the most successful bidder for franchises during the last two years with victories in Dallas, Houston, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and St. Louis.

Only the most intrepid of the city's surviving hustlers are sidling up to strangers in poolrooms this week to ask if they'd like to shoot some nine-ball. The reason, as any adherent of the subculture knows, is that this is the week of the annual Professional Pool Players Association world championships at the Roosevelt Hotel, and any seemingly awed stranger could well be a participant. Nearly 100 of the world's best, men and women, are keeping the tables in the hotel's Grand Ballroom alive with break shots and caroms from 11 A.M. until well after 2 in the morning, and they are not above looking for some outside action in off hours. ''This was always a tough town to win in anyway,'' said one of the visitors, who ekes out a living hoodwinking the unwary but has had little success in the few remaining New York poolrooms this week. ''You beat somebody here and they won't play again, but somebody beats you, they want to play all night. Down South, when people lose, they'll want to come back. You can get them for a few hundred before they catch on.''

One of the more bitter energy debates of the past decade - whether to allow the export of Alaskan oil to Japan - is again being heard in Congress and the White House. Proponents contend that exports of Alaskan crude would result in cheaper oil prices for many American consumers who buy petroleum products refined along the Gulf Coast. In place of Alaskan oil, Gulf refiners would receive oil from Mexico, which costs less to transport. Exports of Alaskan oil to Japan currently are banned under the Export Administration Act of 1979, which addressed possible problems of national security and was designed in part to stimulate the development of the tanker and shipping industries in the United States. Federal law requires that shipments between American ports must be made on United States ships.

SALISBURY, Conn. WHEN the stars and the moon come out, they shine right through the house in the woods where Marietta Whittlesey and Nic Osborn dwell. The young couple are part of nature but snugly dry whether the weather outside be dappled sunlight and shadow or crashing thunderstorm. The beauty and majesty of their experience have come as a bonus, because the original decision to live as they now do was purely financial. Mr. Osborn and Miss Whittlesey were outraged at the summer rents in this northwestern corner of Connecticut, running up to $1,000 a month. So, early in May, they decided they would save money by spending the summer in a tent.